800 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
JOHN FRASER, THE BOTANI- 
CAL COLLECTOR. 
Born 1750—died 1811. 
(With a Portrait.) 
JoHN FRASER, well known as a zealous 
and indefatigable collector of North Ame- 
rican plants, was a native of Inverness- 
shire, whence, at about twenty years of 
age, he came to London in 1770. The in- 
dividuals who were the first to patronize 
and encourage his devoted attachment to 
otany, were the late Sir James Edward 
Smith, President of the Linnean Society, 
Dr. Pitcairn, President of the College of 
Physicians, Mr. Aiton, the King’s gardener 
at Kew, and Mr. Forsyth, Curator of the 
Apothecaries’ Garden at Chelsea. 
Between the years 1780 and 1784, Mr. 
Fraser visited Newfoundland in search of 
plants, and in 1785 commenced his re- 
searches in the southern States of North 
America, where he was employed for two 
years, and greatly advanced the interests 
of the cultivators of American plants, as 
well by his numerous discoveries, as by 
the various new genera and species which 
he introduced to this country. He also 
sent home different objects of Natural His- 
tory and collections of seeds, while his 
skilful method of packing enabled him to 
transmit, uninjured, many living plants, to 
which the hazards of a long sea-voyage 
had always, previously, proved fatal. Those 
eminent nurserymen, Lee, Loddiges, and 
others, the patrons of American Horticul- 
ture, and the founders of the unrivalled 
establishments about London, acknow- 
ledged themselves deeply indebted to the 
services of Mr. Fraser. 
Soon after his arrival in the State of 
South Carolina, the subject of this brief 
memoir formed a most intimate friendship 
with Walter, an American Botanist, who 
wrote the Flora Caroliniana, and when 
the premature death of this lamented friend 
took place, he engaged to publish his Flora 
in London. 
On Fraser’s second visit to America, in 
1788, when on his route from Carolina to 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF JOHN FRASER. 
Georgia, he first met with that distinguish- - 
ed French Botanist and Traveller, André - 
Michaux, who had then just started on an 
expedition to collect plants for the French 
Government; and with the son of this 
gentleman, the author of the celebrated — 
Monograph of the American Forest-Trees, 
he also, at a later period, became ac- 
quainted. 
Previously to this time, our traveller 
had repeatedly transmitted to London se- 
veral valuable packages of plants, and he 
now returned, laden with a general collec- 
tion of the result of his long and arduous 
labours, to which the most honourable tes- 
timony was borne in the botanical publi- 
cations of that period. 
Twice between the years 1789 and 96, 
did he revisit the North American Conti- 
nent, extending his researches into the In- 
terior, amongst the various Indian Settle- - 
ments, traversing the range of the Alle- - 
hany Mountains, and exposing himself to 
such privations and hardships as nothing 
but the ardent zeal of the man, combined 
with the dauntless hardihood of the High- 
lander, could have enabled him to support. 
In 1796, he first visited Russia, taking 
with him a choice collection of American 
plants, which was purchased immediately 
on his arrival at St. Petersburgh, by the 
Empress Catherine, who, as a further proof 
of her approbation of his labours, and of 
the liberality with which Her Imperial 
Majesty patronised Science, was pleased 
to command him to set his” own price 0? 
press Catherine having taken place the 
next year, Mr. Fraser was 
invitation, sent through Count 
the Russian Ambassador at London r 
proceed to Russia, carrying with wu 
selection of plants for the Imperial G 
of the Empress Maria, at Perlorskoe. ge 
greatest success having attended es 
dertaking, he was most liberally rew des 
and further received orders to furni Gar- 2 
ditional collections for the bape 5 su 
dens of Gatschina and Pero m 
the following year to bring from pri 
all such new and approved impleme! z 
